Lead Chief Investigator

Stephen R Williams Physical & Theoretical Chemistry, RSC, ANU

Project Title

Computer Simulation of Glassy Materials out of Equilibrium

Brief Description for General Publications

After being quenched a glassy material can continue to evolve for an exceedingly large amount of time. Eventually this evolution will not be apparent on the longest time scale that may be measured. In many materials this glassy type behaviour may be found, e.g. polycrystalline materials and some biological materials. For ordinary materials, which do not evolve in time, we have well developed theoretical techniques for calculating the response to external disturbances. For glassy materials, which slowly evolve when left undisturbed, the calculation of their response to an external disturbance remains a theoretical challenge. Drawing on our own recent developments this challenge will be addressed by combining new theory with extensive computer simulations.